Cypress Speech and Debate Team finished an OCSL league tournament on Saturday, February 4, 2012, at Sonora High School. The team competed in different criteria of Parliamentary Debate, Policy Debate, Public Forum, and Impromptu.
The tournament lasted for the entire day, from 8:00 AM to 8:00PM, but the competitors held on tight and finished strong. Diane Kim, a Senior, and her partner Justin Park, a Junior, received first place in the Policy Debate division, and became the Policy Debate Tournament Champion. “I am very nervous right now, since everybody else will be working hard to beat us. So we must work harder for the State Qualifier Tournament (the next Speech and Debate Tournament coming up),” says Justin. Justin and Diane have been debating together for past three years and it was their second time receiving the championship at the Sonora Tournament. Not only Diane and Justin but also another Cypress Debate partners ranked high at the tournament. Edgar Jaramillo, a Junior, and Anubhav Basak, a Sophomore, ranked fourth place in the Parliamentary Division. Edgar and Anubhav have only been working together for few months but they have ranked couple times already. “I am incredibly proud of our work, because it was our first Open level tournament and we did very well,” says Edgar.
Other Cypress Debaters performed well in the Speech events, according to Thomas McCloskey, the Cypress Speech and Debate Instructor. Several of the competitors who competed in Impromptu received at least one first place in their rounds. And overall, it was an opportunity for them to learn more about the event they are competing in. Aljin Pascua, a Sophomore, said, “I am not fully happy with my records from Sonora, but I think I can definitely improve. The Sonora tournament gave me hope about the future tournaments.” “In the beginning, I was a little nervous and thought I couldn’t do well, but now I am confident that I will do better next time,” says Aisha Said, a Freshman, “Sonora High School Tournament was a great practice for all of our teams.”
Cypress Speech and Debate will be competing at the Orange County State League Qualifier for the events they are competing in. If they qualify at the tournament they will get a chance to compete a State Level Debate rounds. “They all did very well and I believe that they can do better,” states Thomas McCloskey.
